Bought Monitors

So I went to the store planning to check out and hopefully buy the KRK VXT4s. They didn't have a pair for me to listen to but they did have the VXT6s. When I heard them I was blown away, these things sounded incredible and I knew I had to have them. I got very lucky and they were on sale got them for $900 canadian. I am very happy with them so far(had them about 4 days now) I plan on keeping these for a while maybe in the future adding a sub if I get better bass traps for my room. Looking for a Command 8 right now going to buy the first one I see as long as the price is right. I'll let you know how I like that when I get it(could be a while because no stores around here have it so I may have to order it).

Monitor Shopping

So I'v been doing plenty of research on monitors over the past 2 months and finally have put together some money for a pair. As of yesterday I had it narrowed down to 2 monitors in the cheaper price range. The first is kind of an obvious choice the KRK Rokit 5 G2, I have heard good things about these monitors of course other than they lack bass. Yesterday I was able to go out to a store and hear the Rokit 5s, I must say that personally I'm not impressed with them, I brought my own reference material which I have heard many times on a pair of KRK VXT 8s(at school), the lack of bass for me at least I feel would throw my mixes off especially if I was doing hip hop or something like that. The second option I had was the Sky Blue EXO 2.1 system. The problem here is I don't know anyone personally who has used these, and have yet to hear them. I have located them at a store near my school and will go take a listen when I have time. I'm excited for these monitors because they come with subwoofer which should handle the low end much better than the Rokit 5s but I've also heard they are kind of computer speakerish(when I hear them I'll let you know what I think).

So since my disappointing test with the Rokit 5s I've decided that maybe putting a little more money into monitors would be a good idea. I've began looking at the KRK VXT4s which are quite a bit more but from what I've read they cover the bases that the Rokit 5s don't. My only concern is that a 4" woofer may be lacking the bass response also but from experience with VXT8s I have faith in the kevlar cone. So I will probably go test these sometime today because I saw them on a discount table yesterday(stupid I didn't test them). If I really like these speakers I will buy them on the spot, but will still go listen to the Blue Sky's for comparison. If I like the EXOs equally or more I'll return the VXT4s and buy the Blue Sky's for significantly less money.

I'll keep updating on my listening experiences.

Introduction

Hi, I am an audio production and engineering student at metalworks institute in Toronto Ontario. This is my blog about gear I'm looking into and some of it purchasing. The reason for my blog is to keep track of things I am interested but also to share my views and opinions as well as some from my teachers who are very well established in the industry.

First off I'll tell you about gear I already own so you can get an idea of my setup. I basically just do mixing and maybe some tracking of vocals at home for now because I don't have a conducive place to track a band. The hub of my studio is a MacBook Pro with a 2.8 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I have experience with a Mac Pro and IMac but preferred the option of being portable, but when I'm able to afford it I will invest in a Mac Pro. On my MacBook Pro I'm running Pro Tools 8 LE which is glitchy at points but still a very good home editing/mixing option if you can't have an HD system. To run PTs I'm using an Mbox 2 pro, don't get me wrong this is a very solid small scale interface but I wish I had spent the extra money and bought a 003 rack, or 003 rack plus. I just wish I had more inputs, for tracking drums and such but for now I can deal with just the 2 mic pre amps and being able to add 2 more via spdif. Unfortunately right now for monitoring I'm stuck with headphones(AKG k 240 MK II) which are amazing for headphones but don't have enough dynamic range for what I need. For microphones I have 3 Shure SM57s and a Shure Beta 52a, this is a drum mic kit but the SM57s can be used for many things like electric guitar or even vocals, and for some people, usually low voice, the Beta 52a works incredibly well. For now this is my mixing gear list I will be doing more posts on future gear, most likely monitors next, until then start following if your interested in pro home audio gear.